Hitchcocks, of course, except I think he shouldn’t have fallen for Eva Marie Saint. He’s very sexy in To Catch a Thief. Oh, my very favorite one is Cha—no.”
“What?”
“I’m not sayin’.”
Charade is my favorite Cary Grant movie. But he’s so much older than Audrey Hepburn in that one, with his gray head of hair and his crow’s feet, that I am ashamed to admit I have adored it ever since I first saw it when I was eleven years old.
“So you like Cary Grant but not Clark Gable. Not sure I get that.”
“Dude! You totally underestimate the sex appeal of Ashley Wilkes!”
“Ashley Wilkes is a girl’s insipid dream!” he exclaims. “The romantic hero of an adolescent! Reassuringly asexual, and when he does knock on Melanie’s bedroom door, once a fortnight, you can be sure he’ll take his weight on his elbows. Like a true gentleman!”
“I’m sorry to interrupt you, sir, but—would you like tea or coffee? Water?”
“Right, what do you think—” He peers at the name on her lapel. “Oh, come on—you’re never called Melanie!”
The flight attendant, a slinky young woman with a tattoo peeking out of her blouse, grins. “My mom was a huge fan of the movie, and she liked Ashley Wilkes! For my money, I’d take Rhett Butler any time—if he’s available without the cigar-and-brandy breath!”
I’m laughing so hard, I can hardly hold my plastic cup of tea without spilling it all over my manuscript.
“Of course a man with an English accent is always very sexy.” Melanie smiles, pushing herself through the narrow gap between the drinks cart and Giles’s seat.
“I know, right?” I agree a shade too heartily and rest one hand on his thigh in order to pass her two dollars. She narrows her eyes at me and turns to the other side of the plane.
“Oooh, I say.” Giles flutters his eyelashes and sighs.
“Giles, what have you done with Hornberger’s file?” I ask on an impulse.
“Boring!”
“It’s not boring at all! It is nail-bitingly exciting, and you are an old meanie for not letting me be part of the adventure!”
“That’s me. Ol’ Meanie Cleveland. And you’re a good little assistant professor working on her spotless, sparkling tenure file. End of adventure.”
“You’re talking through your hat, Cleveland.” I’m genuinely annoyed with him. “And you’re a hypocrite!”
“I’m what?”
“Well!” I look around me in the cabin of the plane.
“What do you—oh, I see what you mean.” He grins. “But I said dinner. What did you have in mind?”
For the first time since he offered me a ride to the airport it occurs to me that I would be disappointed if he didn’t try to seduce me. Talk about hypocrisy!
I make another attempt. “Did you, for example, try to find Mary-Lou Tandy?”
“I had a look in the Shaftsboro phonebook. She isn’t there.”
“That hardly counts as trying to find. Have you handed the file in to the police? Or to the chair of the Sexual Misconduct Hearing Panel?”
“No…”
“But, Giles! That’s—” I instinctively lower my voice. “That’s withholding salient information in ongoing legal proceedings!”
“No, it isn’t. It isn’t even a case. Had Mary-Lou ever filed charges with the police, yes, but she didn’t have the mental or emotional stamina to do so. I don’t blame her. But she didn’t, and having raped her doesn’t make it more likely that he also raped Natalie.”
“Yes, it does!”
“No, it doesn’t!”
“But you think he did!”
“I do, but that’s neither here nor there.”
“Cleveland, you’re really starting to upset me!” I inform him, in case he hadn’t noticed. “Don’t you want to see him behind bars?”
“That’s a very complicated question.”
“It is? Guy rapes women, guy ought to go to jail. What’s complicated?”
“Revenge.” He shakes his head, gazing out the window behind me. “So difficult, that. You’ve read the plays. You know how revenge invariably returns to stab the revenger in the back.”
“Yes, for plotting and scheming against his adversaries! You’re not setting a trap for Hornberger; you’d only be exposing what should have been exposed long ago! And talking of revenge—never mind.” I cut myself off, but he raises his eyebrows at me, demanding to hear. “Well, Giles, I don’t know, but threatening to tell Holly Ortega and Elizabeth Mayfield about Nick’s affair with Amanda—that was revenge, too, wasn’t it?”
“The revenge element was incidental. I had another reason.”
And more he will not tell me, so I try another tack.
“Why do you think Corvin hid the file?”
“Blackmail? We’ve all wondered how Corvin gets away with…what he gets away with. Maybe this is why.”